WASHINGTON  America's first African-American president is serenaded by first-class performers at a nationally televised concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial two days before his inauguration. More than a few people on the National Mall on Sunday must have been thinking of Marian Anderson — and how amazed and proud she'd be.

In 1939, Anderson, the famed American contralto, was banned from performing in the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin. So instead she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, singing the American anthem My Country, 'Tis of Thee for an integrated audience of an estimated 75,000.

Just short of 70 years later, another concert on those steps blended joy, remembrance and unabashed patriotism in celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama before an integrated audience of hundreds of thousands, including Obama and his wife, Michelle; their daughters, Malia and Sasha; Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill; and their extended families. Together, they watched a black-and-white film clip of Anderson's stirring performance seven decades ago, when few could have imagined that the son of an African father and a mother from Kansas could be elected president of the United States.

The concert was titled "We Are One." Near the end, Obama alluded to that idea. He acknowledged the grave challenges he and the country face and the hope that national unity would help meet those challenges.

"It is how this nation has overcome the greatest differences and the longest odds — because there is no obstacle that can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change," he said.

On the Mall, the crowd filled in the grounds around the near-frozen Reflecting Pool, cheering, waving, dancing and shivering under gray skies.

Later, Wonder said he was thrilled to learn that Obama had grown up listening to his music.

"It's a blessing to think the songs I wrote, the melodies I sang, played an important part of his life — that maybe I was making a contribution to a president in some way," Wonder said.

Soprano Fleming, who sang You'll Never Walk Alone from the 1940s Broadway musical Carousel, said it was "exhilarating" to join performers from different genres to celebrate Obama.

Echoing Anderson, Josh Groban and Heather Headley sang their own version of My Country, 'Tis of Thee. Near concert's end, folk singer Pete Seeger and Springsteen led the crowd in Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land.

Most of the performances were duets or trios, sometimes backed by different choirs. Some of the performers sang their hits: Mellencamp did Little Pink Houses, slightly altered for the occasion. Others sang American anthems — Beyoncé and America the Beautiful. And some sang other performers' hits: Brooks, a registered Republican, sang foot-stomping bits of American Pie, Shout and We Shall Be Free.

The songs alternated with readings by more stars: Jamie Foxx, Steve Carell, Denzel Washington, Tiger Woods, Jack Black, Rosario Dawson, George Lopez, Kal Penn, Queen Latifah, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Judd, Forest Whitaker, Marisa Tomei. They talked about the words and deeds of past presidents, the first black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963 on the Lincoln steps. Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks read from Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, quoting Lincoln's words, as the orchestra played the iconic music, banned from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower after conservatives objected to Copland's politics.

Also, two majestic American bald eagles were brought on stage to flap their wings and look … well, majestic. And dangerous.

At the end of singing Pride (In the Name of Love), Bono said the sentiment of the song was also an "Irish dream, European dream, African dream, Israeli dream," and, after a long pause, "also a Palestinian dream."

He addressed Obama before launching into City of Blinding Lights: "What a thrill for four Irish boys from the north side of Dublin to honor you, sir, … for choosing this song to be part of the soundtrack" of the campaign.

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